On Wednesday, the U.S. State Department announced the addition of the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) to the Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also designated TTP as Specially Designated Global Terrorists, which allows the U.S. to take extra steps to block funding of terrorists overseas by American individuals, extremist groups and others.
“These actions will help stem the flow of finances to TTP and provide the Department of Justice with a critical tool to prosecute those who knowingly provide material support to TTP and its senior leaders,” said the press release.
The State Department, however, left the Afghan Taliban off the terror list. The Daily Caller reported last month that key players in the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan were advocating negotiating with certain elements within the Taliban as the U.S. begins to withdraw troops.
At the time, some suggested State’s reasons for failing to include the radical group centered around hope for future rapprochement with the Taliban. That theory was all but confirmed when Gen. David Petraeus and Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, both spoke out saying a political agreement with the Taliban in Afghanistan was necessary.
Wednesday’s action consisted of State filing criminal charges against the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Hakimullah Mehsud, for his part in orchestrating an attack on a U.S. base in Afghanistan last December that killed seven CIA employees. In the announcement, U.S. officials also offered $5 million rewards for information leading to the capture of another TTP leader, Mehsud and Wali-ur-Rehman
State cited an April 2010 attack on a U.S. consulate in Pakistan, TTP’s relationship with al-Qaida, its involvement in the 2007 assassination of Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and its responsibility for the failed Times Square bombing plot as reasons for adding the group to the terrorist list.
“Today’s actions put the TTP and its sympathizers on notice that the United States will not tolerate support to this organization, which has inflicted great harm to U.S. and Pakistani interests,” Daniel Benjamin, State’s coordinator for counterterrorism, said in the press release. “TTP’s destabilizing effect in Pakistan’s tribal areas has resulted in innumerable civilian deaths and considerable property losses. It has greatly, indeed unacceptably, complicated the efforts to counter the threat posed by al-Qaida.”
As The Daily Caller previously reported, a report released by the State Department last month notably left off the Pakistani and Afghan Taliban groups, even though the U.S. has been at war in Afghanistan for the express purpose of defeating all factions of the Taliban.
“The designation of the Pakistan Taliban is long overdue,” Fred Gedrich, former State employee and foreign policy analyst told TheDC. “Let’s hope the folks at US State Department come to their senses soon and add the Afghan Taliban to the list as well. The Afghan Taliban has been on a terrorist orgy against Afghanistan civilian population since the 1990s.”